As you can see from this e-mail, it appears that by his own admission, General Manager John Driscoll has involved himself in town politics when his real job is managing Templeton Light & Water. Under MGL chapter 164, section 56 "the manager shall at anytime when required, make a statement of his doings, business, receipts, disbursements, balances and indebtedness of the town in his department." that is a partial entry of the above referenced MGL. The advisory Board according to state law and Templeton by-law is suppose to have access to all things financial of any entity in town. Selectmen Virginia Wilder certainly should be aware of this as she served on advisory for a number of years alongside Dan Keeney. It is strange how Ms. Wilder would characterize a citizens petition "absurd" considering these two emails and the fact that so many citizens have spoken of the lack of information coming from or being provided from the light & water commissioners. Perhaps too much time spent on Baldwinville Road and not enough time spent in the selectman's office. Taxpayers need to have access to all financial information from ALL Templeton departments in order to make informed decisions at town meeting but how can they do this if some of their elected officials fail to provide this information. Hopefully that petition got every ones attention and we will all get on the page of being open and honest with the taxpayers, they do pay the bills!

Jeffrey Bennett

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From: "J Driscoll" <jdriscoll@templetonlight.com>
To: "MA Advisory Board Templeton" <templetonadvisoryboard@gmail.com>
Cc: "Town Coordinator" <towncoordinator@templeton1.org>, "Chris Stewart" , "j farrell" farrell
@hotmail.com>, gwvwtemple@aol.com, "patrick mullins 2012" <patrick.mullins.2012@gmail.com>, jpb01468@comcast.net, "Kate Myers" <kmyers@templeton1.org>, snowfighter4@verizon.net, "Joel Thompson" <royalcadet@comcast.net>, "Mary Lang" <mlang@net1plus.com>, "Darren Elwell" <darren.charles.elwell@gmail.com>, "Joseph Boyd"
Sent: Monday, March 4, 2013 6:35:58 AM
Subject: RE: Templeton Water budget for FY14

Will,

I apologize for not meeting the anticipated deadline. If you have been reading the newspaper at all, I think you can appreciate that I have had to focus my efforts in other areas as of late. There are a lot of things moving at light speed and I am attempting to get caught up.

You'll notice by the PDF form that the Water Plant's anticipated (not yet voted on) water budget for FY14 is already broken down into several different categories; it would be helpful to me if you could tell me which particular budget items that you would like me to expand on. Unlike in past years, I cannot locate a Microsfot Excel Template file which all of this information would fit into nicely. If someone has that available, please forward it to me.

And this is not as simple as just e-mailing you an attachment. It is important that I get the bottom-line budget figure of $1.407M to agree on the PDF Document and then on the Excel one, beacuse that is what my proposed dollar amount for the FY14 water budget is. All of the data (for whatever reason) has been historically organized differently on the Water Commission copy than on the Town copy whcih goes to Town Meeting. Maybe that is something that should change. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that Templeton Water has been asked directly by Advisory for a budget breakdown that is more detailed than the one that I am to present at my own Water Commission.

What is the date of the next Advisory meeting?

John

This email may help clear the air and show what I believe the reason behind the citizens petition was, lack of information, timely or other wise and hopefully the commission got the message.

Here is the Budget submitted by JD

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From: "MA Advisory Board Templeton"
To: jdriscoll@templetonlight.com
Cc: "Town Coordinator" , "Chris Stewart" , "j farrell" , gwvwtemple@aol.com, "patrick mullins 2012" , jpb01468@comcast.net, "Kate Myers" , templetonadvisoryboard@gmail.com, snowfighter4@verizon.net, "Joel Thompson" , "Mary Lang" , "Darren Elwell" , "Joseph Boyd"
Sent: Sunday, March 3, 2013 7:46:18 PM
Subject: Templeton Water budget for FY14

John,

At the TML&W meeting in early Feb. I requested a detailed line item Water budget for FY14 and not a summary recap. At the Advisory Board

meeting on FEB. 13 the board voted to have me request the detailed Water budget for FY14 again so we could compare it to past years budgets.

The next day, Feb 14th, I contacted you by phone and asked for the detailed budget. You indicated that I would receive it in the next week to two

weeks. I stated I did not understand why it would take that long as the summary had to come from the detailed budget. I did indicted I would like

it before the next Advisory Board meeting on Feb 27th. As of this date I have not received the requested detailed FY14 budget for the Water

Dept.

The Advisory Board at the meeting on FEB 27th were hoping to review the budget but I had to inform them I had not received it. The Board again

voted to have me request the budget for the third time.

I am not sure what the holdup is for it not being sent. A simple attachment to an e-mail will do. The Board would appreciate receiving the FY14

detailed line item budget document from you so it can be reviewed at our next meeting in March.

Another issue on the budget is that the detailed budget should be included in the Town Annual report not a summary. This request was made to

both Enterprise's (Sewer as well as Water). Budget information submitted for the FY12 annual report should be for FY12 not FY14 as the one you

sent.

I would hope that the detailed Water budget for FY 14 is included with the Warrant article that will be submitted for this Annual Town meeting in

May.

Thank you,

Wilfred " Wil " Spring

Citizens Petition

Well now that is over with, perhaps it is time to ponder something new. I mean while taxpayers are enjoying paying $1 less on the customer charge on light bills. Perhaps something good came from that after all. Now, what to ponder about citizens petitions; should Templeton residents citizen petitions be reviewed by Templeton town counsel prior to being presented at town meeting? Does not really matter if it is annual or special town meeting. Now before shaking your head and raising the legal costs issue, please take time to think about it. As you do that, let me say that this very subject came up to selectmen with the petition to abolish the light & water commissioners and I will post the e-mail thread about this subject as it was e-mailed to all selectmen and that would make it a public record and no sense anyone having to pay for it when I will provide it for free (I will request it from myself and post it on the blog as a public service) Apparently the question came up should town counsel check over the petition or any citizen petition for that matter, to ensure it is proper and legal so when voters vote on them, they are in fact voting on something that is legal, otherwise it is pretty much a waste of time and not only at town meeting but with the states Attorney General office as well. Selectmen Julie Farrell commented that in the past she had always been told that was not legal. Why would it be legal for town resident and selectmen for say Jeff Bennett to propose a warrant article to the BOS and have it voted on then it gets checked for legality by town counsel but another "regular" citizen presents a petition to be on the same warrant and it is not checked for legality by town counsel? This is not the selectmen or the municipality endorsing or speaking in favor of, because that is illegal, but rather ensuring that the "town" ensures all things presented to the legislative branch (the people at town meeting) is legal and correct; as in ensuring democracy works correctly by ensuring the voting and election mechanism works and is legal which I believe is very much a function of government. As the above mentioned e-mail thread will show, your town legal counsel has opined it is legal for town counsel to look over petitions for clarity, legality so as to ensure a correct and working democratic process. Please remember Templeton's lead town counsel is Mr. Paul DeRensis who also happens to be a selectmen (vice-chairman of the board) in his hometown. He not only opines on legal issues but he also serves in the same capacity as I do, as a selectmen dealing with the same issues as all other selectmen do which I think gives him and Templeton a great advantage. Yes I can hear the argument that if a citizen or citizens want a petition they should also be responsible for paying the costs to have it checked out legally. My answer to that is why? Why do I and my fellow selectmen, who are also residents of Templeton get to have the article we chose to bring forward get to enjoy the "privilege" of having our articles checked out by town counsel who is paid by you the taxpayers but the same privilege is not given to those same taxpayers? The few times this will happen would be a small price to pay to ensure that the legislature (you taxpayers) participates in voting on issues that are correct and legal. I believe that by not ensuring this very simple yet very important issue, we as selectmen are being very disloyal to those who have chosen us to do some of their work. I do not believe that simply serving in the executive branch I entertain more power or privilege than the legislative branch. Simply put, it is legal and a very good service and principle to ensure that the democratic process is clean, open and legal and how can anyone be against that I ask? As for the light & water citizens petition is concerned, town counsel opined it was legal but chairman Chris Stewart made the decision to not begin any new precedents and do what the previous town coordinator/town counsel did, deny equal protection under the law to the citizens of Templeton. To give benefit of the doubt to the chairman, and the e-mail thread will show this, selectmen Julie Farrell did state this was perhaps a decision for the chair and with the timing and volatility of the one issue, there may not have been time for a proper lengthy discussion by the BOS on this matter. I certainly hope this is brought up for discussion in the not to distant future as I consider this an important matter.

Jeffrey Bennett